In the manufacture of meat and sausage products, it is customary to prepare, for instance, a meat emulsion from comminuted meat together with fillers, seasonings, spices, etc. A tubular food casing, such as one prepared from nonedible cellulose is loaded onto the stuffing horn of a filling machine and stuffed with the meat emulsion. For sausage products like bologna and salami, etc., the meat emulsion is introduced into large, heavy walled fibrous type casings, for example, and formed into round shaped chubs or lengthy sausage sticks.
One example of a useful apparatus for stuffing large diameter sausage products like bologna is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,709,450 by Thomas R. Stanley et al. The disclosed apparatus is capable of producing sausage products with a high degree of dimensional uniformity which is especially important when meat packers cut lengthy sausage products into slices of predetermined thickness and diameter for prepackaging. The objective is to have a specific number of slices weigh precisely a predetermined amount for each package. The Stanley et al stuffing apparatus, which is capable of producing sausage products with substantially flat terminal ends for higher product yields, includes as part of the stuffing process casing closing steps consisting of gathering casing at each terminal end and applying end-closure clips thereto. This provides a firmly filed closed casing without product loss occurring.
In one embodiment of the Stanley et al invention, essentially identical dual casing gathering and clipping devices are employed, spaced somewhat from one another. Disposed between the casing gathering and clipping devices is a cutting mechanism for severing casing between the trailing chub clip of a leading filled product, and the leading horn clip of a trailing casing, next to be filled. One specific representative example of a gathering and clipping device disclosed by Stanley et al is the Z4141 model commercially available from Tipper Tie, Inc., Apex, N.C. Casing gathering and clipping devices of this type have a multiplicity of moving parts including die gates for supporting dies. In addition, they have spaced and opposing casing shutters offset in parallel planes for gathering casing at terminal ends by swinging in an interleaved arrangement. The casing gathering and clipping devices also include a clip punch mechanism with a magazine for storing and automatically feeding end-closure clips over gathered and compressed casing locked between casing shutters. A motorized punch rod upon actuation compresses the end-closure clip against a lower die member to secure the gathered casing and retain the end-closure in place.
The foregoing gathering and clipping devices have a number of shortcomings. For example, the devices rely on a multiplicity of component parts, can be costly to purchase and not substantially maintenance-free. One result is that machine operators need to interrupt filling operations in order to make adjustments in the devices. Frequently, shutters require adjustments for aligning the clip punch channel with the lower die member. Distortion from constantly striking clips between the die and channel also occurs. In addition to their mechanical features, such devices in the process of gathering casing for application of an end-closure clip fail to provide the desired uniformity to casing folds for producing more reliable end-closures.
Accordingly, there is need for a simpler, more economic, self-contained casing shutter and clipping device having fewer component parts for use in conjunction with food casing stuffing apparatus which will fully gather casing into at least initially a substantially horizontal plane wherein the end-closure has an even pattern of folds and compresses it into a small enough area for installation of an end-closure clip without the aid of other gathering components. The device should be capable of operating continuously and reliably without frequent interruptions and down time for adjustments and parts changeover.